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•WHY WORK FOR THE SLAVE? 



Will you not labor for the perishing ? Surely, woes unutter- 
able must move your heart. Woes unutterable ! Do you doubt it? 
Hear a slaveholder. B. Swain, of N. Carolina, in a public address 
in that State in 1830, speaking of the slaves there, said : 

"Think of the nakedness of some, the hungry yearnings of others, 
the flowing tears and heaving si<ihs of parting re)a:ions, the waitings of 
lamentation and wo, the bloody cut of the keen lash, and the frightful 
scream that rends the very skies. * * * The worst is not gen- 
erally known. Were ail the miseries, the horrors of slavery, to burst 
at once into view, a peal of seven-fold thunder could scarce strike greater 
alarm." 

What must be the anguish of those who feel the iron enter their 
own souls, when a few glances at the process, could extort such 
language from a slaveholder? 

Have the free states nothing to do with slavery ? Can you ask 
this over the fresh grave of Lovejoy, whose murderers Walk the 
streets at noon-day, defying the law, and laughing it to scorn, and 
that in a free state; — and while northern men and women go every 
year to the South, and become slaveholders, and not a few who 
remain among us, hold slaves, and grow rich on their unrequited 
toil ? * 

Do you ask if woman should meddle with slavery? See the 
widow of Lovejoy, left alone to rear her fatherless child. In a 
country where slavery thus strews with desolation a woman's 
hearth-stone it surely becomes woman to seek for the cause, and 
if possible to apply a remedy. 

While your brothers, husbands and sons may at any time be 



T Mv.ny merchants in New-York and elsewhere, possess southern plantations, 
and pretend to own many human beings. 

1 



rr a** 



I A GIRL KIDNAPPED AT WASHINGTON. 

called, with deadly weapons, to crush, if possible, the liberty-seek- 
ing slaves, and thus fight against Jehovah,* will not you, in the 
spirit of love, strive for their peaceful release 7 

While woman, at our national slave. market, is robbed of her 
children, can northern women look on in silence? And when 50 
northern Representatives, with ears closed to that mother's wail, 
vote that your petitions for her shall NOT BE READ, will you 
not redouble your efforts to save your children from slavery? 

Can you help working, when you learn the story of Mary Brown ? 
She was stolen from her free parents in Washington City, held 
as a slave in Natchez and Vicksburgh, and now lives in Ohio. 
The committee who prepared the Ohio Report, of which A. Wat- 
tles was chairman, say they are assured by those who knew Mary 
at the South, that her statements may be impliciily relied on. Her 
manner, in telling her story, was artless and simple, bespeaking 
conscious truth. 

" She lived with her parents until the death of her mother ; she was 
then seized and sold. One day, when near the Potomac bridge, Mr. 
Humphreys the sheriff, overtook her, and told her she must go 
with him. She inquired of him what for? He made no reply, but told 
her to come along. He took her immediately to a slave auction. Mary 
told Mr. Humphreys that Bhe was free, but he contradicted her, and 
the sale went on. The auctioneer soon found a purchaser, and struck 
her off for three hundred and fif y dollars, to a Mississippi trader, 
and she was tuken directly to the jail. After a few hours, she was 
handcuffed, chained to a man slave, and started in a drove of about 
forty for New-Orleans. The handcuffs made her wrists swell so that 
they were obliged to take them off at night, ;>nd put fetters on her ankles. 
In the morning the handcuffs were again put on. Thus they traveled 
for two weeks, wading rivers, and whipped up all day, being beaten at 
night, if they did not set their distance. Mary says that she frequently 
waded rivers in her chains, with water up to her waist. It was in Oc- 
tober, and the weatl er cold and frosty. 

•'After traveling thus twelve or fifteen days, her arms and ankles be- 
came so swolh-n that she felt she could go no farther. Blisters would 
form on her feet as large as dollars, which at night she would have to 
open, while all day the shackles would cut into her lacerated wrists. 
They had no beds, and usually sle t in barns, or out on the naked 

f [round — was in such misery when she lay down that she could only 
le and cry all night. Still they drove them on for another week. Her 
spirits became so depressed, and she grieved so much about leaving her 
friends, that she could not eat, and every time the trader caught her 
crying, he would beat her, accompanying it with dreadful curses. 

•'Mary at length became so weak, that she could travel no farther. 
Her frame was exhausted and sunk beneath her sufferings. She was 
seiz°d with a burning fever, and the trader, fearing he should lose her, 
carried her the remainder of the way in a wagon. 

•• When they arrived at Natchez they were all offered for sale, and as 
Mary was still sick, she begged that she might be sold to a kind master. 
She sometimes made this request in presence of purchasers — but was 
always insulted for it, and after they were gone the trader punished her 
for such presumption in revealing her sickness, and thus preventing 
her sale. On one occasion he tied her up by her hands so that 

* "The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a con- 
test." — Jefferson. 



A WOMAN ENSLAVED IN ALGIERS. «> 

she could only touch the end of her toes to the floor. This was 
soon after breakfast; he kept her thu9 suspended, whipping her at in- 
tervals through the day — at evening he took her down. She was so 
much bruised that she could not lie down for more than a week after- 
wards." 

The rest of her history while a slave is full of horror. Her case 
differs little from thousands, except that she escaped to reveal her 
woes, while they suffer and die unheard. 

' 'The cise of Burditt Washington is another among the many 
proofs that all protection is withheld from our colored brothers and 
sisters, within sight of our national Capitol, while Congress shout 
to the slave-trader, " Here's free plunder ?" 

One of the nine children sold away from him, was a daughter 
about eighteen. A slavetrader came to the house, seized and car- 
ried her aboard the steamboat. The aged father followed. " I then 
went into the hold," said he, " and found my child among the other 
slaves. She threw her arms about my neck and said, ' Father, I'm 
gone, can't you do something for me ?' I could'nt stay there any 
longer. I broke away from her." Here the old man's tears stopped 
his voice. After sometime, he said : " I have not seen or heard of 
her since. Oh, it hurts me every time I think of it." 

I had this from his own lips. He was a member of a Baptist 
church in Alexandria. Rev. Spencer H. Cone, and Rev. Samuel 
Cornelius, his pastor, testified to the excellence of his character. 

If such a crime had been committed upon George Washington, 
would it have been more wicked ? Would not every voice execrate 
a Congress which would not hear him, or his friends, asking for 
relief? God is no respecter of persons. Are we like him ? 

We may enter into the feelings of a slave by reading the storjr 
of Maria Martin, an American woman, enslaved in Algiers. In 
1800, she embarked for Cadiz, and when almost there, was seized, 
carried to Algiers, and placed, alone, in a little dirty hut. Here 
she exclaims, '« Gracious God ! what were my feelings at this mo- 
ment ! In a fit of despair I seized the knife, and should have killed 
myself, had I not taken time for a moment's reflection." 

After several years, the mate of the vessel she sailed in suc- 
ceeded in getting, with her, on board a ship starting for London. 
The coast of Algiers was fading from her sight, when the wind 
changed. The ship was driven back. She says : " I could dis- 
tinctly hear the yells of the barbarians on shore, and soon heard the 
motion of oars alongside. I fainted, and recovered, but to find my- 
self once more in the power of my unfeeling enemies. They bound 
the mate and myself hand and foot, and carried us on shore." 

The mate was doomed to a cruel death. She was chained in a 
dismal cell, where she says : " The little sleep I could have, may 
be supposed. My body and mind sunk under suffering, and I fell 
ill of a burning fever. Sickness itself is sufficient to humble the 
mightiest mind : what then is sickness with this addition of tor- 
ment ? The fever, the headaches, my neck swelled and inflamed 
with the irons enraged me almost to madness. The remembrance 
of my sufferings at that dreadful moment still agitates, still inflames 
my blood." 



4 AMERICAN SLAVERY WORSE THAN ALGERINE. 

She was confined there two years. Think of her sufferings and 
then ponder well the testimony of Gen. Eaton. In a letter to his 
wife, dated April 6, 1799, he speaks thus of the white slaves in the 
Barbary States : 

" Many of them have died of grief, and the others linger out a life lees 
tolerable than death. Alas ! remorse seizes my whole soul, when I re- 
flect, that this is indeed but a copy of the barbarity which my eyes have 
seen in my own native country. * * * Indeed, truth and justice 
demand from me the confession that the Christian slaves among the 
barbarians of Africa are treated with MORE HUMANITY than tha 
African slaves among the professing Christians of civilized America." 

What is American slavery, when he thus speaks of the recollec- 
tion of it while in sight of his friends and countrymen in chains ! 

We have a mass of testimony, fresh from the slaveholder's lips, 
to confirm this assertion, and rouse us to activity. 

The following is from the Rutherford Gazette, a paper printed 
in the western part of North Carolina, and copied into the Southern 
Citizen, of Sept. 23, 1837 : 

"Suicide. The negro woman, [Lucy] confined in our jail as a run- 
away, put an end to her existence on the 28th ult. by hanging herself. 
Her master came to this place the day on which it occurred, and going 
to the jail, was recognized by the woman as her master. He had left 
the jail but a short time, when it was discovered that the woman had 
destroyed herself. We have never known an instance where so much 
firmness was exhibited by any person, as was by this negro. The place 
from which she suspended herself was not high enough to prevent her 
feet from touching the floor, and it was only by drawing her legs up and 
remaining in that position, that she succeeded in her determined pur- 
pose." 

Lucy was, in effect, murdered by slavery. She cannot now de- 
scribe to us the horrors from which she tried to escape, nor speak 
of the apprehension and despair which impelled her, thus, to seek 
the "king of terrors" as a shelter from American slaver/. 

The following facts, it will be seen, are from recent Southern 
papers. See what merchandize they offer for sale, with no allusion 
to complexion. A stranger might think the flesh-merchant was 
dealing in his own brothers and sisters. 

OR SALE, A WOMAN, about 24 years of age, with her child, 6 
years old. also. 

Wanted to purchase, a BOY from 17 to 20 vears old. Apply, &c. 
Augusta {Geo.) Constitutionalist, Oct.. 12, 1837, 

BY THOMAS N.. GADSDEN. 

TO-MORROW, the 24th insr. will be sold 
A prime Young Fellow, named ISAAC, 18 years old, belonging to 
the Estate of John Carsten, deceased. Conditions cash. 
Under the head of "Auction Sales," in the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, Nov. 28,1837. 

What havoc was wrought in Virginia to procure the merchandize 
offered in the following notice:. 

The Subscribers, residing in Hamburgh, South Carolina, have just 
received a new supply of likely Virginia SLAVES, House servants, 
Cooks, Washers and Ironers, Mechanics and Field Hands. 

JOSEPH WOODS & CO. 
[Chronicle and Sentinel, Augusta, (Geo.) Oct. 12, 183T* 



F 



ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY. 

In the Norfolk (Va.) Beacon, Nov. 18, 1837, is a notice, headed : 

" Cook and Washerwoman at Auction." 
She is said to be " 35 to 40 years of age, sold for no fault," and 
it is added, "the purchaser will be required not to send her away, 
her OWNER not wishing to separate her from her husband." 

NASH & CO., Auct'rs. 
What if the required agreement is broken ? " On the side of the 
oppressor there is power" and he who can hold a woman as pro- 
perty can hold his word as property. Within a week she might be 
taken from her husband, and driven frantic to the slave market. 
Or, perchance, she might escape from her tormentors, on the way, 
and be advertised in the style of the following : 

[From the New Orleans Bee, Oct. 28, 1837.] 
810 REWARD. 
RANAWAY on the 9th of October, CAROLINE, aged about 38 
years, had a COLLAR on with one prong turned down, she had a sore 
on her left shin. T. CUGGY, 

Gallatin st. between Hospital and Barracks, 

And we may hear of her husband thus : 
ggjt ~g X^^^ REWARD.— Ranaway from, &c. a negro man named 
3to JL x^^Jr WILEY, about 37 or 38 years of age— one of his fore- 
fingers has been injured. It is possible that he will make his way to 
Tennessee, where he says he has a wife. J. C CABINESS. 

[Alabama State Intelligencer, Tuscaloosa, Oct. 16, 1837, 

Or thus : 

WAS committed to Jail, 
.£ jYEGRO mm jit 

who says that his name is 
JMRMtW. 

Said BOY is about 30 years old, light complexion and 
bald head ; has a scar on his left Knee ; also, one on 
his forehead, and one on his right hand ; he is VERY 
MUCH MARKED WITH THE WHIP. 
The owner, &c. B. W. HATCH, Jailor. 

[Port Gibson (Mi.) Correspondent, Sept. 16, 1837,' 

Here we see a woman driven by slavery to take her three child- 
ren and run away from her tormentor and their father. 





R 



$3© Reward. 



AN AW AY from the Subscriber my Negro Wo- 
man, Betsey Merrick, with her three children, 
Edward, Margaret Ann, and Caroline. Said Betsey 
is of dark complexion, her children are Mulattoes. — 
Her youngest is an infant. 

The above reward will be given on her delivery to 
me, or being ledged in any jail where I can get her 
and her children ; and an extra sum of $30 for the conviction of any 
white person or persons harboring them. W. A. LANGDON. 

[Wilmington (N. C.) Advertiser, Nov. 10, 1837. 

Would you know the anguish of this- fugitive? Think of a fe- 
male slave in Algiers, fleeing with three children to the Atlantic 
coast, — lurking in thickets by day, and groping westward by night, 
1* 



6 MEN BEAEIKG. THE MABKS OF SLAVERY. 

snatching her scanty food from the woods and fields, and avoiding 
human beings with more care than she does the serpents and tigers . 
The American slave starts with the certainty that, if taken, his 
miserv will be greatly increased. 

The following is from a paper with this motto : " Equal and ex- 
act justice to all men of whatever state, religion or persuasion." 
What must be the public feeling where a woman felt no shame in 
putting it forth with her name at the bottom ?' 

#4© REWARD. 

"g~ft ANAWAY from, my residence near .\iobile, two negro men, Isaac 
JtcL and Tim ; Isaac is from 25 to 30 years old, dark complexion, scar 
on the right side of the head, and also one on the right side of the body 
occasioned by BUCK SHOT. Tim is 22 years old, dark complexion, 
scar on the right cheek, as also another on the back of the neck. Cap- 
tains and owners of Steamboats, Vessels, and water Crafts of every 
description, are cautioned against taking them- on board under the pen- 
alty of the law, and all other persons against hai boring or in any man- 
ner favoring the escape of said negroes under like penalty. 
Mobile, Sept. 1. SARAH WALSH. 

[Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, Sept.. 29, 1837. 

What must be the feeling towards slaves where those who assist 
these wounded men to escape are punished with pains and penalties! 
The following are from the same paper.: 

COMMITTED 

TO the Jail of Pike county, a man about twenty-three or four years 
old, who calls his name John ; the said negro has a clog of iron 
on his right foot which will, weigh 4 or 5 pounds. The owner is request- 
ed, &c. B. W. HODGES, Jailor. 
$20 Reward. 

R ANA WAY from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses, he is 
of common size, about 28 years old. He formerly belonged to 
Judge Benson of Montgomery, and it is said has a wife in that county. 

JOHN GAYLE. 
A judge selling a man away from his wife ! 
The Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat, has this motto.: "Unawed by 
the influence of the rich or the great, THE PEOPLE must be heard 
and their rights vindicated."' What sweet music to the foreigner 
seeking refuge from the despotisms of Europe ! Beneath that motto 
he might read : 

THE undersigned will, on the first Monday in December next, ex- 
pose to public sale a likely and valuable blacksmith [a mulatto.] 
October. 18, 1837. WM. MATKINS, Trustee. 

[Democrat, Oct. .31, 1837. 

In the same paper, G. W. Fennel advertises that Jacob had just 
escaped the third time in 12 months. What longings for liberty I 

Here, in a Mobile paper, a- man who will give but $10- for a wo- 
man, offers $200- for the privilege of revenging himself on any one 
who shows her a kindness.. 

TEN DOLLARS REWARD. 

RANAWAY from the subscriber, a negro girl named POLLY. The 
above reward will be paid for her apprehension and delivery to- 
the subscriber— or $200 if found harbored by any white man, so thatth^ 
oot oan be proved. J. B. WALKER, Water, si. 



THADE IN HUMAN BEINGS. / 

A few days ago, while you were happy in your quiet families* 
the following sale took place in Mississippi : 

GUARDIAN'S SAIiE. 

WILL be offered at Public Auction, on the premises, one mile from 
Port Gibson, on Monday, 15th January next, 43 likely SLAVES, 
mostly between the ages of 16 and 25 t all acclimated — Among them is 
a good Wagoner and two house Servants; the balance well trained to 
the planting business, and are first rate Cotton pickers. * * * Will 
be put up in families, or individually, to suit purchasers. 

R. H. BAYLY, Guardian of the 
Sept. 26, 1837. person and estate of Joseph McVoy. 

[Grand Gulf (Mi.) Advertiser, Oct. 21, 1837. 

While southern "guardians" thus proclaim the hardness of their 
hearts, let us feel ourselves the guardians of the slave. 

The following, from the same paper, shows how laborers are re- 
garded as things, and robbed of their wages : 

Eight or ten Bricklayers 

ARE wanted immediately at Grand Gulf, FOR WHICH $2 50 per 
day will be given. H. T. PALMER. Oct. 7. 

Can cruelty be rare, where men put their names to such procla- 
mations of barbarity, as the following? 

4Jh> ftf ^fc REWARD. — Ranaway. from the subscriber, a negro fel- 
59^^*^ l° w named DICK, about 21 or 22 years of age, dark mu- 
latto, has MANY SCARS on his back from being WHIPPED. The 
boy was purchased by me from Thomas L. Arnold, and absconded 
about the time the purchase was made. JAMES NOE. 

[Sentinel and Expositor, Vicksbure, (Mi.) Oct. 10, 1837. 

Several advertisements describe females with scars in their faces. 
One mentions a woman who had escaped with 10 children, but I 
have not room- for more of these horrid details. Each of the slaves 
advertised in all the southern states may have a history which, if 
known, wouLd move the hardest heart. 

Here is a wholesale dealer in misery. I have put other words 
for "negroes," and printed them in ITALIC CAPITALS. — 
Though the change makes it sound wovse r it is the same thing in 
different words. 

Jf§AN AND WOMAN BROKER.— The subscriber offera 
™ *-*■ his services in purchasing and selling HUMAN BEINGS. 
The facilities of which he is in possession — warrant a belief that he will 
give general satisfaction in selecting such as are ordered from Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to this city, 
New Orleans and Natchez, having a general acquaintance and regular 
correspondence with gentlemen in the markets where MEN, WO- 
MEN and CHILDREN are bought as well as where they are sold- 
Persons desirous of selling, will please call. A. F. EDVVARDS. 
Nov. 18, 1836. [Mobile Morning Chronicle, Oct. 12, 1837. 

The dates show that he had carried on this business nearly a 
year. Speaking of the internal slave-trade, a Virginian legislator 
asks, if it is not worse than the foreign slave-trade, and says : 

" Here, individuals whom the master has known from infancy,whora 
fee has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who havg- 



8 A FEW OF THE ADVERTISED FACTS. 

been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the 
mother s arms, and SELLS into a strange country, among strange 
people, subject to CRUEL TASK-MASTERS. In my opinion, sir, it 
is MUCH WORSE."— Speech of Thomas J. Randolph, of Albemarle, 
in the Virginia Bouse of Delegates, 1832. 

If there was but one victim to this trade, it should arouse the 
nation. The number who suffer can never be known. The Vir- 
ginia Times, printed at Warrenton, Va., speaks thus of the trade 
in 1836 : 

" We have heard intelligent men estimate the number of slaves ex- 
ported from Virginia, within the last twelve months, at 120,000, 
Not more than one third have been sold, the others having been car- 
ried by their owners who have removed." 

In 72 papers, printed in 1837, I find advertised, 270 persons try- 
ing to escape from slavery, besides a lot of an unknown number. 
48 of these were females, and 18 were children and youth less than 
14 years old. 44 of the men, and 7 of the women were described 
as scarred. 22 had been brought from distant markets, and in 13 
cases it is said that families were separated. Four men and two 
women had IRONS on, or were much marked with irons. The ages 
of the fugitives vary from 6 months to 60 years. Six men and one 
woman who said they were free, were imprisoned, and to be sold 
if they could not prove their freedom.* Two men were marked 
with shot, and one was BRANDED. One man gave permission 
to KILL his slave. Think of such a case. God speaks, amid the 
thunders of Sinai : " Thou shalt not kill." The slaveholder 
answers, amid bloody whips and rattling chains : " You may kill 
r/HAT man, because he tries to be free." Eight slaves (6 men and 2 
women,) were in the habit of running away T or had escaped more 
than once. 

In the same papers, 1525 persons, of whom 179 are said to be 
females, and 100 children, are mentioned for sale, besides 41 lots 
jf human beings, number not stated -.559 persons and 40 lots are to 
ae sold because their masters or mistresses have died. When told 
low slaves weep around the death beds of their masters, mention 
he fact that a single paper, [Columbus (Geo.) Enquirer, Nov. 16, 
1837,] contains notices for 21 such sales. One man, one woman, 
md one little girl 6 years old, offered in three sales of this kind, 
ire said to be sickly, yet they must be sold beneath the hammer to 
my who would buy. In one such sale a claim to an eighth part of 
ive slaves is offered. 

These 72 papers were very far from being the worst I might 
lave selected. Many of them were from small towns in Maryland, 
Va., and N. C. Yet think over the amount of wo to which they are 
in index. More than 500 papers, (including dailies,) are printed in 
he southern states each week, or 26,000 in a year. These 72 
vere therefore less than a three hundredth part of the southern 
)apers published in 1837. How large a part of the actual adver- 
ised facts of the year they contain cannot be safely estimated. If 

*In most of the slave states, any colored persons, not having free papers at hand,, 
nay be imprisoned, and if, while in prison, they do not prove their freedom, they 
>re sold to pay the expenses of the unjust imprisonment.. 



A WOMAN SCAHHED .* — A MAN IN THONS. 3 

we multiply these facts by 20, it will evidently be but a small part 
of the reality, yet it gives the following result : 



5400 fugitives, of whom 
960 are females, and 
360 children. 

80 WOMEN With YOUNG CHILDBEN. 

880 men scarred. 

140 WOMEN SCARRED. 

260 separations of families. See 
80 men in IRONS. [p. 5. 

40 WOMEN IN IRONS. 
40 men marked with SHOT. 
20 men BRANDED. 



20 LICENCES TO KILL. 

30500 persons advertised/or sale, &, 
820 lots of human beings, do. 
3580 mentioned as females. 
2000 children. 

900 women with young children. 
8400 persons sold in estates of de- 
ceased slaveholders. 
800 lots of persons, do. 
880 persons sold by the sheriff, & 
13400 by auctioneers. 



If such are a small part of the incidents advertised by slavehold- 
ers in a year, the inquiry comes home to our hearts, What can we 
do this year, and every year, for those who are thus bought and sold, 
torn from the places of their birth, driven from market to market, 
parted from dearest relatives, mangled with whips, imprisoned, 
branded, shot, and given up to murderers? 

Do you ask, if these facts are unusually horrible ? Then read this. 

TEN DOLLARS REWARD will be given for my negro woman 
named Liby or Lucy, as she sometimes rails herself. The said 
Libyis about 30 years old, and VERV Ml CH SCARRED ABOUT 
THE NECK AND EARS occasioned by WHIPPLNG, had on an old 
plaid cloak, with a handkerchief tied round her ears, as she commonly 
wears it to hide the scars. ROBERT NICOLL, 

Dec. 29, 1835. Dauphin st. between Emanuel and Conception. 

[Mobile (Ala.) Commercial Advertiser. 

Is this an extreme case ? James G, Birney, a native of Kentucky, 
once a slaveholder, now, by the power of anti-slavery truth, an 
advocate of immediate emancipation, on reading the above, said it 
was not strange to him. He resided nearly sixteen years in the 
same state in which Robert Nicoll could put his name and residence 
to such an advertisement, and then walk the streets of Mobile, 
glorying in the protection of law and the sanction of public opinion. 
He says the women who are field hands are nearly all scarred with the 
whip, — that, in the planting states, about one third of the field hands 
are females, — that, when sold, their necks and arms are generally 
examined to see if they have been much whipped. 

I asked him how such an advertisement would affect the standing 
of Mr. Nicoll in Mobile. "Not at all," said he, "or he would'nt 
have published it. It would affect him no more than a man r s adver- 
tising a barrel of apples for sale in New-York." 
[From a Tennessee paper.] 

WAS committed to Jail, a negro boy who calls his name John. 
Said n p gro is about 22 years old, had on, when brought to Jail, 
a LARGE NECK IRON, with a HUGE PAIR OF HORNS, and 
a LARGE BAR OR BAND OF IRON on his lefties. 

The OWNER of this PROPERTY, is requested to complv with the 
law and take him out of Jail. H. GRIDLEY, Shff. July 11, 1834. 

When we are met by the objection that these are single cases, 
and probably rare, we reply: They are advertised in face of a com- 
munity, and pass without rebuke. If such thinga were uncommon', 



10 CAN SLAVES FEEL? 

they would excite remark. If they were abhorred by the people, 
they would enkindle public indignation. Do you ask if there is ne> 
indignation aroused ? Read the following as one reply : 

$25 Reward, 
"gj ANA WAY from the plantation of A. H. SEVIER, in Chicot 
MM; county, (Arkansas,) BOB a slave, has a scar across his breast, 

ANOTHER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HIS HEAD, — his BACK is much SCAR- 
RED with the WHIP. E. H. WALDEN, Agent. 
Lake Port, Sept. 26, 1836. [Vicksburg Register, Oct. 6, 1836. 

A. II. Sevier, of whose care this "working man" has so many- 
marks, has been recently chosen to one of the highest offices in 
the gift of his fellow-citizens. In the United States Senate he helps 
make laws for the government of northern laborers. 

The following barbarous announcement appeared in a southern 
paper about three years ago. Would it not make heathens blush 7 

FOR SALE, a valuab'e negro woman, with OR WITHOUT A 
CHILD SIX MONTHS OLD. 

But do the slaves feel such separations as keenly as we should ? 
Let tacts answer. I can quote but few out of the great multitude. 

A gentleman, who had resided much in slave states, traveled in 
North Carolina some years ago, when he saw a woman following a 
drove in which were her two children who had been taken from her. 
She seemed so .deeply agitated, that he thought she was crazy. 
She cried out, "They've gone ! they've gone! ! Master would sell 
thein. I told him I couldn't live without my children. I tried to 
make him sell me too, but he beat me and drove me off. I go* 
away and followed after them, and the driver whipped me back: 
and I never shall see my children again." The poor creature 
shrieked and tossed her arms around her with maniac wildness, and 
beat her bosom and cast dust inio the air. "At the last glimpse I 
had of her," said the eye witness, "she was nearly a quarter of a 
mile from us, still throwing handfuls of sand around her with the 
same phrenzied air." The witness of this scene is now in N.York, 
and he says he never shall forget the horrid spectacle. 

The Maryville (Tenn.) Intelligencer, of March 12, 1834, says : 
"Slaves have feeling, intense feeling, and many of those who are 
sold to slave-traders would prefer death to their present lot." 

Mothers, who feel for their children more than for themselves, 
have often killed them to save them from the horrors of slavery. 

The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican mentions the case of a woman 
sold Irom her husband near that city, in 1834, and says: "Her 
husband seemed absolutely stunned by this most unexpected blow. 
He followed his poor wife to town, to take a last look and bid a last 
adieu. He said, * I will get my master to sell me to the driver and 
go with my poor wife. My days will not be long on earth, and this, 
I hope, will shorten them.' " 

These heart-rending separations occur daily. 

Prof. Andrews, of Boston, an opposer of the abolitionists, says 
he asked a slave-trader, whom he met near Washington City, if he 
often bought the wife without the husband ? "Yes, very often, 
and FREQUENTLY, too, they sell me the mother while they keep- 



SFFECT OP SLAVERY ON SLAVEHOLDERS. II 

the children. I have OFTEN known them take away the INFANT 
from the MOTHER'S BREAST, and keep it, while they sold her." 
— Andrews on Slavery and the Slave Trade, p. 147. 

In the year 1835, the Synod of Kentucky published an Address 
to the Presbyterians of that State who hold slaves. They would, of 
course, be very careful to state no more than the truth. After 
saying, that the members of a slave family may be forcibly separat- 
ed, they say the masters often practice what the law allows. — 
*' Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, 
are torn asunder and permitted to see each other no more. These 
acts are DAILY occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and 
the agony, often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim, with a 
trumpet tongue, the iniquity of our system. There is not a neigh- 
borhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There 
is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of 
manacled outcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that they are 
exiled, by force, from all that their hearts hold dear." 

How little of the truth we can ever know till the slave is permit, 
ted to speak, may be judged from the following language of Judge 
Ruffin, of N.C.: 

"The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is no appeal 
from his master. No man can anticipate the provocations which the 
slave would give, nor the consequent wrath of the master, prompting 
him to BLOODY VENGEANCE on the turbulent traitor, a vengeance 
generally practiced with impunity by reason of its privacy." — See 
Wheeler s Law of Slavery, p. 247. 

While these facts stir you up to labor for the slave, remember 
that your sympathies should be not less aroused for the masters. 
They are '• nursed, educated and daily exercised in tyranny,"* and 
grow up the victims of violent passions which rob them of peace. 

The history of Mrs. James M. Nelson, sister of Governor Trim- 
ble of Ohio, is an impressive illustration of the withering effects of 
slavery on the heart. She was born in Virginia, but her parents 
moved to Ohio while she was an infuiit. When she was fifteen 
years old, as Ohio was then new, she was sent to her uncle's in 
Virginia to go to school. She then first saw slavery. The slaves in 
her uncle's family were treated better than most others in the neighbor- 
hood. Yet, unused as she was to such sights, the constant nameless 
indignities and insults she saw them suffer, affected her so, that before 
she had been there two hours, she sought where to weep, and went into 
her chamber and wept there. For some weeks, she retired of en to weep 
alone. She wrote to her mother begging the privilege of going home, 
and telling her it would break her heart to stay where human beings 
were thus treated. As the mails went slow, it was long before she 
received the answer, which gave her leave to return directly. As she 
had then become familiar with slavery, it had almost ceased to affect 
her, and she concluded to stay. She soon became ashamed of her ten- 
der feelings, and could even do, without reflection, ihe very things, the 
sight of which had so affected her. 1 have these facts as she stated 
them to a friend some years ago. 

The Kentucky Synod in the address above quoted, speak of the indo- 
fence, tyranny, and disregard of the rights of others, which are devel- 

* Jefferson. 



X2 HOW CAN WE ABOLISH SLAVEHY^ 

oped, cultivated and matured, in the slaveholders, and say they can al- 
most adopt the opinion that ;1 slavery is worse for the master than for 
the slave." 

In January, 1832, Mr. Samuel M'D. Moore, in the Virginia House of 
Delegates, spoke zealously of the pernicious effects of slavery on the 
slavehol lers. He says, "The dissolute habits of a large number of our 
fellow-ci'izens are too notorious to be denied, and the cause of it is too 
obvious to be disputed. Many, too proud to till the earth, are wasting 
their estates, and raising their iamilies in habits of idleness and extrava- 
gance. Many youn^; men attempt to force themselves into professions 
already crowded to excess, and many of these resort to intemperance 
to drown reflection, when want of success has driven them to despair. 
In that part of the state below tide-water, the whole face of the country 
wears an appearance of almost utter desolation." 

The dread of insurrection fills many of the slaveholders with con- 
stant apprehension and alarm. But often, when men cry, Peace and 
safety, then sudden destruction cometh. T. R. Gray, of Va., in his 
preface to Nat Turner's confession, says: "Every thing upon the 
surface of society wore a calm and peaceful aspect, — not one note 
of preparation was heard to warn the devoted inhabitants of wo 
and death." Then, he says, the leader of the insurrection " was 
revolving schemes of indiscriminate massacre to the whites, — 
schemes fearfully executed, as his band proceeded on their deso- 
lating march. Men, women and children, from hoary age to help, 
less infancy, were involved in the same cruel fate. Many a mother, 
as she presses her infant darling to her bosom, will shudder at the 
recollection of Nat Turner." This insurrection took place August 
22, 1831, at Southampton county, Virginia. During the following 
year, the whites in the slave states suffered scarcely less than their 
lacerated victims. Excitement and alarm prevailed. A Baptist 
minister, a native of Virginia where he then lived, said that whole 
counties were often panic-stricken by some one calling hogs in the 
woods, or by some other equally harmless noise. Alarm being 
given, mothers snatched their children and ran from their houses, 
gathering together in public places, surrounded by their husbands 
and sons. The panic spread from house to house, and lasted for 
days, and when the truth was known, it could not quiet the fears of 
women and children. They went home with palpitating hearts. — 
Rumors of insurrection were frequent in nearly all the slave states. 

Why does slavery continue to curse the slave and afflict the 
master, and disgrace and endanger the nation? 

Because ii is the people's will. 

How is that will to be changed ? 

By appeals to the conscience and understanding. 

We are, first, to do all in our power to diffuse a correct senti- 
ment in the circles in which we move ; and, secondly, to supply the 
American A. S. Society with the means of arousing the nation to 
a sense of our guilt and danger. 

They are trying to do this, by publications and living agents. — 
They need money. 



A COOK.— I have for sale, a first rate Female COOK, with a Child, 
six or eeven years of age. I can recommend this Woman as one 
of the best bread makers in Virginia. Call on J. B. ABBOTT, , 
At J. W. RANDOLPH & CO's Book Store. 
[Richmond (Va.) Whig, Jan. 4, 1838. 

Perhaps the woman's color is not mentioned because it is like that 
described in the following, from the New Orleans Bee of July 4, 1837 : 

DETAINED in the Jail of the Guard-house of faubourg Washing- 
ton, the mulatto woman named MARIA, pretending herself 
FREE, about 22 years old, round face, CLEAR WHITE complexion. 
Notice is hereby given to the OWNER of said SLAVE, to come and 
claim her, in conformity to the law. 
22d June, 1837. P. BAYHI, Captain of the Watch. 

PROPERTY AT AUCTION. 

BY FRANCIS LANCE, this day, Cora, 45, field hand— Margaret, 
22, do. — Juliet, 19, do. — Harry, 13, smart boy. Conditions cash. 
[Charleston Courier, Jan. 11, 1838. 

A Sheriff's Sale. 

The following sale is advertised in the Georgia Journal, Jan. 2, 1338. 
The sale was to take place, Feb. 6, 1838 : 

WILL be sold, the following PROPERTY, to wit: One 
CHILD, by the name of James about eight months oW, levied 
on as the property of Gabriel Gunn. 

Also, the following property, to wit. one man named Tim, 

about 40 or 50 years of age levied on as the property of Tubal Corley. 

ENCOURAGEMENT TO LABOR. 

Are Anti-Slavery lectures, discussions and publications doing any 
good? Though our main effort thus far, has been to equip and mar- 
shal for this moral conflict, yet glorious conquests have already been 
achieved. I have room for but few out of the many facts, of this kind, 
In Feb., 1834, a large class of theological students at Lane Seminary, 
(Ohio,) discussed this question : " Ought the people of the slaveholding 
states to abolish slaver y immediately?" Eleven of them were bom 
and had always lived in slave-states, seven of them were sons of slave- 
holders, ten others had lived in slave states, besides several who had 
traveled in the midst of slavery, making inquiries, and searching after 
truth. 

After a thorough discussion of nine evenings, they were unanimous in 
favor of immediate emancipation. An Anti-Slavery Society wasforraed, 
with seven of the officers from slave states. 

March 19,1835, an Anti-Slavery Society was formed at Danville, Ky. t 
having J. G. Birney, Esq., Prof. Buchanan, and Dr. Munsell, among 
its members. Thirty-four slaves were emancipated by the members of 
this society, or by their influence. 

In May, 1834, Mr. Thome, of Kentucky, addressed the Annual meet- 
ing of the A. A, S.. Society, when he said : " That abolition principles do 
commend themselves to the consciences and interest of slaveholders, I 
stand before you a living witness. Your principles are grossly misrep- 
resented and misunderstood. Yet, you have done much already. One 
of my acquaintance, a young man of growing influence, became a whole 
hearted abolitionist, in consequence of reading a single number of the 



\nti-Slavery Reporter, sent to him by some unknown hand. A family 
>f slaves in Arkansas Territory, another in Tennessee, and a third con- 
sisting of 88, in Virginia, have been emancipated through the influence 
)f one abolition periodical. Then do not hesitate as to duty. We have 
teen lulled to sleep by the guilty apologist. We appeal to you for light. 
send us kind remonstrance, and manly reasoning. We are perishing 
or lack of truth." 

The American Society have materials enough to abolitionize the na- 
ion if they had funds to ply them vigorously. Lack of means forces 
hem to refuse daily applications for lecturers and books and tracts, 
fhey have delayed the publication of many works of great importance, 
or the same reason. Truth has struggled through many difficulties, 
nd produced action in the legislatures of Massachusetts, Vermont, New 
ersey, and Ohio. Her course is onward. We must now decide whether 
re shall share in her triumph, or perish in a vain attempt to oppose her. 



Extracts from the Constitution of the Am. A. S. Society. 
Whereas slavery is contrary to the principles of natural justice, of our 
jpublican form of government, and of the Christian religion, and ^s de- 
tructive of the prosperity of the couutry, while it is endangering the 
eace, union and liberties of the States ; and whereas we believe it the 
uty a'id interest of the masters, immediately to emancipate their slaves, 
nd that no scheme of expatriation, either voluntary or by compulsion, 
an remove this great and increasing evil ; and whereas we believe that 
is practicable, by appeals to the consciences, hearts, and interests of 
le people, to awaken a public sentiment throughout the nation, that 
'ill be opposed to the continuance of slavery in any part of the. republic, 
nd by effecting the speedy abolition of slavery, prevent a general con- 
ulsion ; and whereas we believe we owe it to the oppressed, t© our feb 
>w-citizens who hold slaves, to our whole country, to posterity, and to 
rod, to do all that is lawfully in our power to bring about the extinction 
I slavery, we do hereby agree, with a prayerful reliance on the Divine 
d, to form ourselves into a society, to be governed by the following 

CONSTITUTION. 
Art. I. This Society shall be called the American Anti-Sla very 
ocietv. 

Art. II. The object of this Society is the entire abolition of slavery 
i the United States. While it admit? that each s f f te in which slavery 
dsts, has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right 
» legislate in regard to its abolition in said state, it shall aim to con- 
nce all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their under- 
andings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in the 
ght of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all enn- 
srned, require its Immediate abandomu^t, without, expatriation. The 
ociety will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence Con- 
reas to put an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery 
all those portions of our common country which come under its con* 
id, < specially in the District of Columbia, — and likewise to prevent the 
(tension of it to any state that may be hereafter admitted to the union. 
Art. III. This Society shall aim to elevate the character and con- 
tion of the people of color, bv encouraging their intellectual, moral, 
ni r< liyious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus 
ley may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an 
juality with the whites, of civil and religious privileges; but this So- 
ety will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindicating 
^eir rights by resorting to physical force. Q ^ 



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